As a light emitting device, there have been conventionally known an organic EL device which emits light by causing a current to flow to a light emitting layer thereof, an inorganic EL device which emits light by applying a voltage to the light emitting layer thereof, and the like. These light emitting devices are applied to backlights of a liquid crystal display, a display, and the like. As the light emitting device, for example, there is disclosed in JP-A-10-64678 a linear light emitting device 1 obtained by laminating at least one layer of an organic light emitting layer containing an organic compound having a carrier transport property and a transparent electrode layer in this order on at least a part of the outer periphery of a linear conductor. There is disclosed in JP-T-2002-538502 a light emitting device 2 in which a plurality of light emitting devices each having two electrodes are included on a fiber and each of the light emitting devices emits light by supplying an electric signal between the two electrodes. There is disclosed in JP-A-2002-352949 a linear light emitting device 3 obtained by laminating an electrode layer, at least one layer of an organic light emitting layer containing an organic compound having a carrier transport property, and a transparent electrode layer in this order on at least a part of the outer periphery of an organic fiber. There is disclosed in JP-A-2002-184580 a fibrous light emitting device 4 including a fiber core having a first electrode on the outside, at least one light emitting layer placed on the outer surface of the first electrode, and a transparent second electrode placed the light emitting layer. These linear light emitting devices 1 to 4 can be utilized as a sheet-like light emitting apparatus by placing a plurality of the linear light emitting devices 1 to 4 on a substrate. In addition, there are disclosed in JP-T-2002-503832 a tiled display and a tile (a light emitting device 5) formed of a plurality of pixel forming devices used for the tiled display.
However, when the sheet-like light emitting apparatus is manufactured by using any of the linear light emitting devices 1 to 4, the obtained sheet-like light emitting apparatus has not been sufficient in terms of flexibility. Furthermore, when the sheet-like light emitting apparatus is manufactured by using an organic EL material, it is highly important to block the light emitting layer from oxygen and moisture in terms of obtaining a longer lifetime for the light emitting apparatus. However, since there has been conventionally adopted a method which integrally encapsulates an entire light emitting surface, it has been necessary to use a film having sufficient flexibility and an extremely high gas-barrier property for the encapsulation in order to obtain a practical and flexible sheet-like light emitting apparatus. However, there has not been a film for the encapsulation having sufficient characteristics in the gas-barrier property and flexibility under the present situation. Further, even when the sheet-like light emitting apparatus is manufactured by using the linear light emitting device 5, the sheet-like light emitting apparatus has not been sufficient in flexibility since the tiles each formed of a plurality of pixel forming devices are integrally encapsulated.